Access control systems provide security to homes and businesses by controlling access to a facility and preventing unwanted intrusions. Generally, an access control system has both hardware and software that are integrated to provide security technologies. Most systems contain access control panels that combine with software to control access, identify users, and detect intruders. Typical access control systems may be administered by a dedicated host computer, and may utilize software and data available on the host computer through a networked web service interface. When multiple access control nodes or panels are configured through the web service, each access control node or panel must be individually installed, configured and administered. Often much of the data is common among nodes on a clustered group of access control systems, and it is desirable to treat this information as a single object that is shared and simultaneously updated on each node of the clustered access control group.
Among the problems of the aforementioned systems is that to enable installation, maintenance, and updating of multiple access control nodes, a dedicated host computer must maintain all of the data and download appropriate data to the nodes as needed, and that duplicate access control data must reside on each node.